asianews.it
CV NEWS FEED // On June 19 in Pakistan another incident of Christians being targeted under blasphemy laws unfolded when a man was brutally attacked and burned alive for allegedly desecrating pages of the Qur’ān.
According to a report by AsiaNews, Mohammad Ismail was on vacation in Pakistan’s Swat Valley when police arrested him and charged him with blasphemy for allegedly burning Arabic-language papers.
An enraged mob then gathered at the Madyan Swat police station, demanding that officers hand him over for immediate execution. When the police refused, the group stormed the station, injuring several officers and vandalizing the premises. They then dragged the victim from his cell and burned him alive.
This is the latest victim of a series of attacks on Christians under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. As CatholicVote previously reported, 72-year-old Nazil Masih succumbed to injuries from an assault by an anti-Christian mob.
AsiaNews reported that Allah Rakhi, Masih’s widow, died shortly after witnessing her husband’s murder due to the trauma.
Other instances of anti-Christian attacks in Pakistan reported by CatholicVote include a 13-year-old Christian boy who was poisoned for refusing to recite an Islamic prayer and two Christian women who were attacked by a man wielding an ax.
Since blasphemy became a criminal offense in Pakistan in 1987, numerous people have reportedly been lynched by mobs on flimsy charges used for settling personal vendettas, seeking revenge, justifying extrajudicial killings, and targeting religious minorities.
Naveed Walter, chair of Human Rights Focus Pakistan (HRFP), expressed concern that false accusations of blasphemy have escalated to the point where no one feels safe anymore. He emphasized that anyone, anywhere in Pakistan, can be accused by anyone else.
Speaking to AsiaNews, social media writer and researcher Aamir Kakkazai states that the “…misuse of blasphemy laws has turned our society into a killing field,” and that “total chaos is not far behind.”
Local Christian families reportedly are so fearful of being attacked that they have started to vacate their homes.
